Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinthey have surrounded me together. 18. Thou hast put far from me friend and companion: and myacquaintances are darkness. 51714. Wherefore, O Jehovah! wilt thou reject my soul? These lamentations at first sight wouldseem to indicate a state of mind in which sorrow without any consolation prevailed; but they containin them tacit prayers. The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfullydesires some remedy to his calamities. This kind of complaint justly deserves to be reckoned amongthe unutterable groanings of which Paul makes mention in Romans 8:26. Had the prophet thoughthimself rejected and abhorred by God, he certainly would not have persevered in prayer. But herehe sets forth the judgment of the flesh, against which he strenuously and magnanimously struggled,that it might at length be manifest from the result that he had not prayed in vain. Although, therefore,this psalm does not end with thanksgiving, but with a mournful complaint, as if there remained noplace for mercy, yet it is so much the more useful as a means of keeping us in the duty of prayer.The prophet, in heaving these sighs, and discharging them, as it were, into the bosom of God,doubtless ceased not to hope for the salvation of which he could see no signs by the eye of sense.He did not call God, at the opening of the psalm, the God of his salvation, and then bid farewell toall hope of succor from him.The reason why he says that he was ready to die 518 from his youth, (verse 15,) is uncertain,unless it may be considered a probable conjecture that he was severely tried in a variety of ways,so that his life, as it were, hung by a thread amidst various tremblings and fears. Whence also wegather that God’s wraths and terrors, of which he speaks in the 16th verse, were not of shortcontinuance. He expresses them in the 17th verse as having encompassed him daily. Since nothingis more dreadful than to conceive of God as angry with us, he not improperly compares his distressto a flood. Hence also proceeded his doubting. 519 for a sense of the divine anger must necessarilyhave agitated his mind with sore disquietude. But it may be asked, How can this wavering agreewith faith? It is true, that when the heart is in perplexity and doubt, or rather is tossed hither andthither, faith seems to be swallowed up. But experience teaches us, that faith, while it fluctuatesamidst these agitations, continues to rise again from time to time, so as not to be overwhelmed;and if at any time it is at the point of being stifled, it is nevertheless sheltered and cherished, forthough the tempests may become never so violent, it shields itself from them by reflecting that Godcontinues faithful, and never disappoints or forsakes his own children.517 Or prevent thee — Come before the usual hour of morning prayer. — See Mark 1:35.518 “C’est, se cachent.” — Fr. marg. “That is, hide themselves.” Walford reads, “The darkness of death is my associate;” onwhich he has the following note: — “The darkness of death. I take this literally to mean, ‘My acquaintance, or he that knowethme, is darkness personified:’ — orcus, abaddon.”519 The original word for “ready to die” is , goveang It is literally, I labour,or pant for breath, I breathe with pain and difficulty,as a person in great affliction and distress. The verb sometimes signifies to expire; but it does not so strictly express as implydeath, from the obstruction of breathing that accompanies it. (See Parkhurst’s Lexicon, , 1, 2.)251